ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603190029
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below
If recent calls and letters to the paper are any indication, Henry Street may be the Berlin Wall of Roanoke race relations. People see it from distinctly different vantage points.
Today, we publish comments we received when we asked readers whether Henry Street should be redeveloped.
Black Roanokers complained in recent meetings that government and consultants failed to solicit their views before announcing plans to build nightclubs, restaurants, shops and offices on Henry Street, which was once the city's center for black commerce and entertainment.
White Roanokers are ticked off for other reasons. Some claim Henry Street was a seedy, crime-ridden place neglected by black business owners and unworthy of historic recognition or the almost $5 million in taxpayers' money it would cost to start reconstruction.
Black readers remember the street as an important hub for shopping and socializing in the decades when black people weren't welcome anywhere else.
Some blacks and whites agree that what's needed is not the tourist attraction that's envisioned for Henry Street but a drugstore, convenience store, arts center, and other facilities for the Gainsboro neighborhood. Some say the city should focus on a proposed higher education complex around the nearby Norfolk and Western Railway office buildings and not distract itself with an entertainment district.
For more on what readers think should be done with Henry Street, see today's Horizon.
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. Henry Street as seen looking towardby CNBdowntown Roanoke.